Wednesday, March 30, 2011

I give money to a number of charities, organizations, and of course Republican candidates. So everyone seems to think that I am a soft touch. I give money to the National Museum of the Marine Corps and the Navy and the Army must have found out. I don’t care how much crap you swabbies and doggies send me – you aren’t getting any of my money.

To the guys who keep sending me a nickel – I pull it off the page and throw it in my coin jar and then the material goes right in the shredder. You might think that it's like fishing. You throw in a nickel and I send you several dollars back. I don’t even remember who you are. Since it would cost me forty-four cents to send your nickel back, I think it’s more cost effective for us both for me to keep the nickel. If I sent it back, you would have to pay someone to open the envelope and do something with that nickel. Me keeping all those nickels is a classic “win-win” for us all.

For all of you who keep sending me address labels – I have enough. If I live to be 85 I won’t send enough snail mail to use up all the address labels that I have amassed. Besides, I only save two kinds of address labels – the ones from my Alma mater and the patriotic ones. All those with flowers, smiley faces, and other nonsense go right into the shredder.

If all you address label charities don’t mind, in the future could you send nickels instead?

Monday, March 28, 2011

Hillary Clinton and the bloodthirsty Valkyries backed President Obama into a corner and he pulled the trigger on a couple hundred Tomahawks. Certainly not the brightest thing that he has ever done, but hey – what has he done right so far? Now a lot of people on the right are screaming about Presidential authority and the War Powers Act of 1973.

The Constitution calls for a strong Executive specifically because the Founders had the wretched experience of rule by committee in both the Revolution and subsequently under the Articles of Confederation. Indeed we very nearly elected a king. It was seriously considered as an option during the Constitutional Convention (see "Miracle at Philadelphia" by Catherine Drinker Bowen). Some thought that it would be a bad idea to have former Presidents running around after they left office (they must have foreseen Jimmy Carter) and recommended a lifetime term though cooler heads prevailed.

As for the President’s power to light up our enemies the intent of the Founding Fathers might be best observed during their lifetimes when wars were prosecuted against American Indians. Indian nations were considered sovereign nations and as evidence we entered into treaties with them. President George Washington (who presided over the birth of and also signed the Constitution) launched a war against the Shawnee Confederation though there was no declaration of war. That war ended with the Treaty of Greenville.

The lack of a declaration of war has been the rule rather than the exception during our entire history. In the Constitution only three words buried in the middle of the duties of Congress deal with war. There is ten times that much verbiage on Impeachment. This part of the separation of powers has only really been contentious in modern times. Our Armed Forces were at war in a variety of places throughout the world in the first half of the 20th Century without benefit of a declaration of war.

Of course that was all before the infamous War powers Act of 1973. Democrats imposed the War Powers Act on the country over the veto of an unpopular Republican President in 1973. The very next President promptly ignored it several times as have all presidents who followed. That isn't because those Presidents have been rouge actors (well maybe Clinton was a rouge), but rather because they all rightly considered the War Power Act to be unconstitutional. We did just fine for the 185 years that preceded the War Powers Act without it.

The War Powers Act has always been the Democrat's baby and every President since 1973 to include all of the Republicans have considered it an infringement of his Constitutional power. Presidents Ford, Bush 41 and Bush 43, as well as Reagan have made sure to ignore various provisions of the War Powers Act exactly to make the point that they are very much a Commander in chief as the Constitution indicates. Each made sure to reinforce that the President is responsible for the defense as well as the offense of this Nation in order to protect the office of the Presidency.

Congress has the ability to exercise authority over military action and some of them are working on that now. They have the authority to stop the action - we just don't know if they will have the courage. Feckless Democrats asserted that authority in 1975 to clear the path for the Vietnamese Communists to slaughter their Southern brethren. Congress knows how to shut something down when they want to.

With all that said – we would have been infinitely better off had Obama approached war or “kinetic military action” against Libya in the same manner that President Georg W. Bush did. It is hard to imagine that even a President McCain would have bobbled the ball this bad. We would still be dropping bombs on hapless Libyans, but Congress would have been informed and the American people would know what the hell was going on.

President Obama has committed enough outrages on the American people that we don't need to dwell on this one. American service men and women are in combat – let’s back them up. Days before Obama started slinging Tomahawk missiles at Qaddafi many were outraged that Obama wasn't doing anything - now that he has done something everyone wants to whine about how he did it. Come on – he’s making Jimmy Carter look like Winston Frigging Churchill – what did you expect?

Let’s concentrate on getting rid of him in 2012 and flipping the Senate so we can clean up the mess.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Admittedly I retired nearly fourteen years ago, but I was mulling over my experience with NATO during my time in the Marine Corps. I’m not sure how you have NATO “control” without the United States.

I remember going into NATO’s SOUTHCOM headquarters several times. When I went there in the morning if it weren’t for the weird fixtures and door hardware you would think that it was a US military office anywhere in the world. All the people there at 0730 (7:30 AM for non-military types) were Americans. Around 0930 (9:30 AM) the officers of NATO member nations would straggle in looking for a cup of coffee. Following a leisurely lunch nearly all our allies were gone by 1600 (4:00 PM) after a grueling 5 hour day. This returned the headquarters to American control.

For those of us who have worked with NATO certainly we have worked with experienced and dedicated professionals. The British are noteworthy in this regard. But consider that France just shot down an airplane for the very first time in more 70 years. The real pros in the War business reside in the United States Armed Forces and they have for more than five decades.

So what does “NATO control” mean? It seems to me that it means that the guy in front of the camera talks with a funny accent. The people pulling all the strings will still be Americans. I will however be properly impressed if Europeans do the majority of the fighting and the dying this time.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

It’s no secret that I thought two weeks ago that we needed to support a “No-Fly Zone” over Libya. While I still think that is the right thing to do, our rookie President managed to do it in about the worst possible way. I expected that, but what I didn’t expect was that the entire military establishment would roll over for Obama.

I’m not inspired by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen – he’s sort of “Mr. Rogers Joins the Navy.” Where are Admirals like “Bull” Halsey when you need them? One would think that with the exception of former Marine Commandant Jim Conway the only senior officers in the services were General Stanley McChrystal and General David Patraeus. We need to hear from our senior military leaders.

One of the big lessons from the Vietnam War was that the American people have got to be behind us before we commit troops to a conflict. Another lesson is that the Armed Services need a clearly defined and achievable mission that identifies an end game or exit strategy. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any trouble with following up an attack on Americans with something simple like “Destroy as much of the offensive capability of the [insert country name] air force, army, and navy as can be achieved in three weeks for less than $110 Billion.” Every United States action doesn’t have to have as an end state a Jeffersonian democracy in some third world pig sty. Look how well that worked on Kaddafi when Reagan did it. We have to get over the “we broke it, we own it” syndrome. We also have to have a precise goal before we commit soldiers, sailors, air men, and Marines to combat.

With that said, I think that our rookie President is going to find out that a “limited war” is going to be analogous to being partially pregnant. Since Obama sublet the presidency to his Secretary of State - I hope that some general or admiral looked at President Hillary and said “Exactly what do you want us to do and how will we know when we have won Ma’am?” Then they should have had someone put some really inspiring stuff on Obama’s teleprompter along with some cogent rationale of why we are doing this and push him in front of the Congress and the American people. All that needed to happen before the first shot was fired. If we are planning to just keep the bad guys and the people that we think might be good guys apart – that could be a long term proposition. The UN stepped in to separate combatants in Cyprus in 1974 and they are still there in between the combatants.

Kaddafi has been begging to have his ass kicked for 40 years – this is as good a time as any. However one Congressman echoed my thoughts when he said that it was wrong for him to learn that we were going to war with Libya when he heard about the bombs being dropped on CNN. It was wrong for me to find out that way too (only it was on Fox News). The very best people to have framed this in the right way were professional military officers who know better. They have a duty to us and their loyalty is to the Constitution not a temporary occupant of the White House.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

I have been genuinely torn over the issue about a “No-Fly Zone” in Libya.It took me about a week to decide that indeed it was the right thing to do.Now that the deal is done I’m a little concerned with how it was implemented.That might open me up to criticism that nothing Obama does will make me happy.That is not so much a function of my politics as it is the penalty we all are paying for having someone in the White House who doesn’t share our values or reverence for America, its culture and its institutions.

If I had access to the same information that President Obama has at his fingertips I might have acted in a similar manner – but I don’t think so.The news implies that plans were being made last week and certainly that would have been necessary in order to execute Tomahawk strikes and airstrikes.Keep in mind that the uprising in Libya began on 15 February – more than a month before we took action.I would hope that the President had called together advisors to identify options that early, but I doubt it.Certainly the defection of several Libyan diplomats around the world (21 February) and Qaddafi’s call to crush the rebellion (22 February) should have triggered such action – I don’t know.By 5 March there was an identifiable rebel group that we could have at least communicated with and I hope that happened – again I don’t know.My point is that planning and repositioning of military assets should have occurred several weeks before they appear to have.

The most powerful signal that we should have sent was the movement of an aircraft carrier – but that doesn’t appear to have happened.Certainly we are taxed at this moment – but the mobility of ships cannot be overstated in a situation like Libya.Why didn’t we?We will probably never know until someone writes an insider’s expose’ of the Obama administration – but that is no doubt years away.I think that the solution to why is probably in the makeup of the President.He is not about freedom – that isn’t his shtick.The fight of people for freedom doesn’t resonate with Obama the way it did with George Bush.Does anyone doubt for an instant that the US response timeline would have been shorted substantially had George W. Bush been in office?Freedom was in Bush’s DNA, Obama’s DNA runs to government control.

We also might hear some legitimate grousing about how the action was implemented.I’m not at all sure that the American people have been presented the case for intervention and it appears that Congress may not have been consulted either.This isn’t the first thing that Obama has implemented against the clear will of the American people.It will be interesting to see how this plays out.I won’t grouse about the “double standard” but can you imagine being a Code Pink lunatic watching President Perfect slamming Tomahawks into Libya?They are probably wondering what happened to Mr. Hopey-Changey.

I am happy to see British and French planes involved.I will be properly impressed when or if Qaddafi’s Arab neighbors pitch in and help as well.

Now that we are it this thing, we better support the guys and gals who are implementing this action. Hopefully our actions have come in time to help the burgeoning movement in Libya.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

In watching the wall-to-wall coverage of the nuclear problems in Japan – it stimulated my memory about a looming American problem. The coverage seems to be focus on the reactor sites in Japan. While the reactors are a substantial part of the problem the construction of reactors reduces the potential problem with a meltdown. Still serious – but engineers seem to have anticipated that problem. However spent nuclear fuel rods that are stored in cooling ponds on those sites pose significant dangers as well. How does that effect us? Our President (it still hurts to refer to Obama that way) withdrew funding for the completion of the YuccaMountain (Nevada) nuclear waste repository along with a Department of Energy move to withdraw its support to complete the facility. This means that spent nuclear fuel rods are piling up in temporary storage facilities at nuclear sites all around our country.

“According to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) of 1982, as amended, the federal government was obliged to begin collecting nuclear waste by 1998. According to the Yucca Mountain Development Act of 2002, YuccaMountain was to be the waste repository. Despite having collected over $30 billion in waste disposal fees from electricity ratepayers and spending $10 billion on Yucca development, no waste has been collected.”

In other words – the Federal government is collecting about $750 Million dollars annually from electricity consumers (you and me) for the specific purpose of providing a method and location for spent fuel rods (Yucca Mountain) a location which they have built with $10 Billion of the $30 Billion that they have collected. However in another example of government bait-and-switch they have closed the project and are looking to kill it for good leaving dangerous spent fuel rods simmering in temporary cooling ponds around the country.

“The United States has 60,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste stored at more than 100 sites in 39 states, and its 104 commercial nuclear reactors produce approximately 2,000 tons of used fuel every year. The YuccaMountain repository’s capacity is statutorily limited to 70,000 tons of waste (not to mention the problems associated with even opening the repository). Of this, 63,000 tons will be allocated to commercial waste, and 7,000 tons will be allocated to the Department of Energy (DOE).”

While the Federal government has stalled, mismanaged, and crippled the efforts to complete the YuccaMountain facility nuclear waste contractually destined for YuccaMountain has continued to pile up. Spencer points out that YuccaMountain is designed to grow to a capacity of more than 120,000 tons which would provide 30 more years of storage – but the damn government has got to get out of the way and let the project be completed. It is completely irresponsible to not finish the YuccaMountain repository. However if the Federal Government does not come up with a solution to the dilemma, then they owe us – the US taxpayer $30 Billion.

I’m not engaging in the hysteria over what might happen if nature hits us with a “perfect storm” as they have Japan – I’m more worried with the “perfect storm” that our Democrat lead government is orchestrating right now.

You have heard of James O’Keefe unless you live under a rock. O’Keefe heads up Project Veritas and first came to prominence while exposing the moral turpitude of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or ACORN. He followed that up by shining the light on the abortion mill Planned Parenthood (Is that an oxymoron for an organization that destroys babies?). Last week he splashed into the news with a sting of the National Public Radio and Television executive fund raiser. This guy is a one man liberal palace wrecking ball.

By my calculations if by exposesing these corrupt and Anti-American organizations it helps eliminate end tax payer funding of their evil practices – he might save us $800 Million. Based on a simple Google search it appears that we fund these morally bankrupt organizations as follows:

ACORN Funding: $2.5 Million (2008 estimate)

Planned Parenthood Funding: $350 Million (2008 Budget)

National Public Radio and Television: $451 Million (Obama 2012 proposed)

Talk about cost effectiveness – he set up the ACORN sting with $1400 and paid for the expenses of the NPR sting with his personal credit card. This guy deserves our support. Hell Congress should give him a million and he can probably find another $20 Billion being wasted by some other self-righteous liberal bottom feeders. I know that a measly $800 Million is not much when compared to February’s $223 Billion deficit – but he’s making a difference.

Right about the time Republicans need to toughen up - James O’Keefe comes to the rescue. Bravo James. At the end of the radio report my wife looked across the car and said – “We need to send that boy some money.” Yes we do dear, yes we do. Project Veritas.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Watching the eruption of viciousness from the Left in Wisconsin, Ohio, and the hearings on Radical Islam I don’t know how anyone can come to the conclusion that we can compromise with Democrats. There is no middle ground on reducing our deficit and cutting back government. Democrats don’t want to talk compromise until after they have already lost as in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana. President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid took their “shellacking” so now they want to “compromise.” Well it doesn’t work that way.

President Obama’s public rhetoric and Harry Reid’s actions this past week prove that they have no intention of addressing this problem. Therefore we need to stop worrying about saving $57 Billion and go after $570 Billion in savings this year. If the unholy axis of Obama-Reid shuts down the government in response – so be it.

Once that happens, turn off the lights at the Capitol and start a media blitz. With nothing else to do Republicans should go on every television, satellite, and radio show that they can cram into their schedule. Grant interviews with every newspaper, magazine, and blogger. Let’s get a tsunami of truth rolling across this great land.

If Wisconsin proves anything, it proves that the left will stop at nothing to prevent you from fixing this fiscal nightmare that we are wallowing in. The second thing Governor Walker proved is that we can win. Honor his courage by fighting for a truly epic reduction in the Federal deficit.

The American people will never be as ready as they are right now for you and your colleagues to take decisive action. If President Obama and Senator Reid want to shut the government down – let them do it. Don’t challenge them for a measly $57 Billion. Challenge them for a meaningful figure like $570 Billion.

You are the right man and you are in the right place to make an historic difference. We’ve got your back.

Friday, March 11, 2011

I loved every minute I saw of Doctor Zuhdi Jasser’s testimony in front of the Congressional Committee on Islamic terror. However I find it a bit disquieting to have a devout Muslim providing a treatise for our government about the government that Christianity gave us. Doctor Zuhdi Jasser a medical doctor and president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy appears to know more about American history, culture, and the Constitution than all of the Democrat Representatives on the committee combined. Dr. Jasser knows more about our Constitution and American values than our current President who is purported to be a “Constitutional scholar.” Bravo Dr. Jasser.

I also learned today that Representative Sheilia Jackson Lee (Socialist – TX) is a bigger moron than I had originally thought. Frankly – I didn’t think that was possible.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Representative Peter King’s (R-NY) hearing on the radicalization of American Muslims began today and the obstructionist and misinformation campaign of the democrat party was on full display.

Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) accused the Congress of the United States of ignoring the dangerous acts of “America’s oldest terrorist organization the KKK.” Ellison must be a victim of the public school system. The Ku Klux Klan was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and indeed that focus is partially responsible for breaking the KKK as a mainstream Democrat organization. Racists like Senator Robert Byrd (D–WV) participated in and belonged to the KKK as it had morphed into a dangerous racist fraternal organization working hand-in-glove with the Democrat Party. You would think that a CONGRESSMAN would know the history of Congress and one of the brightest moments of that body when they stood up to organized racism.

HUAC is often criticized for getting diverted from chasing the KKK as in the 30s and 40s they largely focused on the growth of the Nazis and Communist movements in the United States. But the fact remains that they did chase KKK members and really turned up the heat in the 60s.

Ellison’s tearful closing statement was followed by Representative Shelia Jackson Lee (D-TX) trying to slow and disrupt the hearing by changing the rules to allow all members to make political statements. Democrats in Congress have always put up barriers to the investigation of the Ku Klux Klan, Nazis, and Communists. That tradition continues today. Of course, as a Muslim Ellison is authorized by his faith to lie to Christians and apostates.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

As Congressman Peter King (R-NY) approaches Congressional hearings on the activities of radical Muslims in the United States, the left is turning up the volume on their hysteria bullhorn. Increasingly liberals (progressives, democrats, socialists, whatever) and radical Muslims are accusing Rep. King of being a modern day McCarthy. One can only hope that he is as successful as Senator Joseph McCarthy was in exposing traitors.

If you are a victim of the public school system virtually everything you think you know about Joe McCarthy is wrong. Senator Joe McCarthy was a rising star in the Republican Party and began to expose Communists in the Federal government as no one was doing anything about it. It was well known that particularly the State Department was riddled with communists. Similarly we have been getting slapped by radical Muslims for over two decades now and it took the barbarism of 9/11 for us to finally do something about it. However the political correct pantywaists still refuse to directly address the source of the problem – I hope Rep. King by shining the light of day on radical Islam will fix this problem.

The charges of McCarthyism were inevitable because the left knows that most people don’t know what really happened and it is their typical hate-speech that works. McCarthy did make some mistakes that if King is alert, he can avoid.

First – keep your staff in check. McCarthy had a fairly modern view on diversity and had hired a flamboyant lawyer who was also gay. Roy Cohn became infatuated with a young man named David Shine on McCarthy’s staff. When this man was drafted into the army Cohn used the power inherent in his position as McCarthy’s lead attorney to attempt to influence Shine’s assignments by threatening army officials. For Rep. King: Keep your staff corralled and focused.

Second – some people are not bad guys, they’re just stupid. McCarthy attacked Secretary of State George Marshall as a closet communist. More people fell under the boot of communism while Marshall was at State than at any other time. Marshall got some incredibly bad advice primarily because there were a variety of very well placed and influential communists throughout the State Department. Marshall’s repeated boneheaded moves seemed to McCarthy to be circumstantial evidence of his politics, in retrospect Marshall was what Lenin referred to as a “useful idiot.” For Rep. King: Don’t attack popular famous people unless you really have your ducks in line.

Third – wave off from attacking popular institutions. McCarthy strapped on the army. It wasn’t the army’s finest hour. There were some serious lapses in security and the army closed ranks to essentially cover it up. We now know that McCarthy was right, but President Eisenhower didn’t see it that way at the time. Being abandoned by the head of the party didn’t turn out well for McCarthy who gradually lost the support of his fellow Republicans (it wasn’t their finest hour either). For Rep. King: There are plenty of bad guys out there, pick your battles wisely.

Fourth – it is going to get lonely out there. The viciousness and the complete disregard for the truth on the left will lead to unrelenting and sustained attacks. Very few Republicans are going to be able to stand in the heat if Rep. King starts to lose the public relations battle. McCarthy found himself alone and under constant fire. For Rep. King: You are going to be lonely and you have to be tougher than woodpecker lips.

To find out how vicious the left can be one simply has to review recent history with the way the left incessantly attacked George Bush and of course the vicious animals in Wisconsin are a current example. Representative Peter King is about to walk directly into the lion’s den. I wish him well.

We know now with the help of release of the Venona files (the decoding of Soviet diplomatic cables), Soviet KGB files, and other studies that there were far more communists in our government than even McCarthy imagined. The democrats who attacked McCarthy were guilty of the vilest treason. The Republicans who couldn’t stand in the heat near the end were cowards. As it turned out, the only victim of McCarthyism was Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Give them hell Representative Peter King – you are the man and this is the hour.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Saturday I ventured north of the OccoquanRiver. Normally that is a mistake and this trip was no different. I decided to have lunch at a Kebab place. I like kebab and it was less crowed than the other alternatives.

I recovered my order and headed to my table and came face-to-face with a woman (at least I assume it was a woman) dressed head-to-toe in a black burka. Though I had noted a number of women wearing head scarves in the area to include some clerks in stores – it caught me by surprise. My first thought was “What a day to forget to wear my bi-lingual “Infidel” hat.” But my next thought was one of sadness and pity. Only her eyes were visible. A friend of mine who is in Afghanistan has a visceral reaction to burkas and I was experiencing that for the first time.

I don’t know any Muslim women personally. There were other happy looking women and girls in the place that I would guess were of Middle Eastern decent. None of them were encased as this woman was in deep black cloth. I couldn’t help but wonder if the feeling of disgust I felt was similar to how an abolitionist must have felt when he saw a slave for the first time.

It is repugnant to me that girls can be made to marry adult males, men can beat their wives, and Muslim women even in America are second class citizens. They aren’t second class citizens because Americans make them so – it is because their imported culture that is foreign to America makes them so. My ancestors rejected the tyranny of kings, nobles, and hereditary privilege to be free – Muslim women should do the same.

I know what the Muslim defense will be – I’ve heard it all. First they will say that none of the evidence that we see before our very eyes is true. When that fails they will trot out Muslim women who will say what a joy it is to have been married to a 40 year old man when they were thirteen, to have their genitals mutilated, to be beaten when they disobey the geezer they are married to, and to top it off – dress in a black tent and see the world through a slit. I suggest that when the temperature hits 100 in Virginia we put the barbaric husband of the diner that I encountered in a burka for awhile.

At the risk of alienating my Great, Great, Grandpa (Company K, 3rd Arkansas Infantry, CSA) I think that it was the duty of Americans to invade the Southern States to end the institution of slavery. Isn’t it the duty of free people everywhere to end such suffering?

At a minimum we should support the efforts of several States that have passed anti-Sharia laws. We must not have a circumstance again where there are a subjugated people within America. For our efforts to be stymied by people who hurl issues of religious freedom back at us is patently absurd.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Not long ago on the way to lunch with a Marine buddy I heard the call for a “Libyan No-Fly Zone” for the first time on the radio. The call was made by Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman – two people with whom I rarely agree. My buddy rejected the plan out of hand and I agreed at the time – but now I’m not so sure. Seeing McCain go up against Secretary of Defense Robert Gates moved me further to the side of intervention rather than away from it. With all due respect, McCain is a warrior and Gates is not. Now even John Kerry (who wanted to be a warrior but failed) is in favor of a “No-Fly Zone” now that some long suppressed molecules of testosterone bubbled to the top. I am now a supporter of a “No-Fly Zone.” My rationale:

First: You get nothing for not playing in the game. Maummar Kaddafi is one evil bastard and making him go away would be a good thing. I suspect that unless there has been a complete failure in our intelligence service that there is someone like Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud that should have been identified within the Libyan resistance. We need to talk with that guy yesterday. He and his followers can make our participation worthwhile just as they did in Afghanistan. Without such a figure it may be wise to wait for one to pop to the surface however.

Second: We have the greatest military capability in the world. It probably escaped most people that the Iraqis had the most modern anti-aircraft equipment that money could buy before the First Gulf War. That equipment was assembled into a very effective defense in depth of Iraq by the French. American military forces attacked it largely from the air. Please think about that and let the irony sink in for a second. We attacked their anti-aircraft system with airplanes. Now that didn’t make the attack bloodless or without cost, but the Iraqis were in significantly better shape than Libyan air defenses are today. Secretary Gates’ remarks that it would require an invasion of Libya to impose a “No-Fly Zone” are incorrect. The U.S. Navy could do this and a Marine Expeditionary Unit could back them up for any ground operations (recovery of a downed aircrew for example) that would be required. We would need to brace for some casualties – but it could be done.

Something tells me that the Libyan response would be akin to the old joke about the Iranian Air Defense Radar who passed over the radio:

“Unknown aircraft you are in Iranian airspace. Identify yourself.”

Aircraft: “This is a United States aircraft. I am in Iraqi airspace.”

Air Defense: “You are in Iranian airspace. If you do not depart our airspace we will launch interceptor aircraft!”

Third: If we could get the Libyan resistance to stop shooting in the air by convincing them that the only airplanes that are going to fly above Libya for more than a few minutes are friendly – they will stop wasting ammunition and shoot it at Kaddafi’s forces instead. We just need to find a freedom fighter in Libya – the Libyan equivalent of Ahmad Shah Massoud or better yet George Washington.

Lastly: We should send in food and medical supplies into “free” (that term will be relative in the Arab world) areas and make sure that it has American flags printed all over it. While we should remain focused on recovering oil, digging a few wells for water in the “free” zones will help a great deal as well. A rather modest effort on our part could be extremely beneficial in the long term.

Remember – Marines have been to Tripoli before – look how well that turned out.

Friday, March 4, 2011

I take HBO when I can get it for free and then shut it down when I have to pay for it because I hate Bill Maher. I know I’m not forced to watch Bill Maher but I don’t like supporting anyone financially who would give him a platform. Neither Comcast nor Verizon seem to catch onto the game. But I digress.

“The Battle for Marjah” follows a Marine rifle company (Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment) commanded by Captain Ryan Sparks. I commanded a rifle company for more than two years – Sparks is a better man than me.

Marjah was a town of about 80,000 Afghanis and it was the center of power for the Taliban. You probably have to be a Marine to understand why it made sense to take just over 200 Marines commanded by Sparks and drop them into the center of that mess. While the documentary mentions actions by two other rifle companies – Sparks and his warriors were put right in the middle of the bad guys – they were surrounded. We have seen reports before that the Taliban was astounded whenever they encountered Marines. “We shoot at them and they RUN AT US!” Was a frequently reported complaint picked up by a variety of intelligence sources. Pretty different than beating up their wives and tormenting civilians I guess.

It's pretty amazing what these modern Marines are doing. I was pretty frustrated in some ways. Bravo company asked for 40 air strikes a day while trying to take the town. But they either were refused or they took so long to get approved that they were aborted. They had a sequence of the Forward Air Controller (FAC) trying to get an air strike approved. Either he knew he was on camera or he doesn't know how to swear. Air strikes are a beautiful thing. Not only do they provide an incredibly accurate and very large explosion – a rifle company doesn’t have to carry the load to the battle. When you hear someone saying that the brass is “making us fight with one hand tied behind our backs.” Air strikes are a big one. We have planes, the Taliban don’t. Watching an F/A-18 drop a 500 pound bomb is a thing of beauty.

They interviewed a Lance Corporal who had been shot right in the helmet by a sniper. No doubt he said a prayer for the guy who invented kevlar. It went through the helmet and was deflected by part of the buckle. I’ll bet you once he got his heart rate down, he was right back in the fight. That’s what Marines do.

I don’t advocate supporting HBO but maybe you can get your liberal brother-in-law to DVR “The Battle for Marjah” for you so you can watch without remorse. Look and see what we are asking these young men and women to do. I support the war in Afghanistan, but I want to win. In fact I want to win so decisively that ten generations from now bad guys shudder when they even think of screwing with us.

I was always in awe of Marines even when I was one. I think that today’s Marines are better than we were. They swear about the same amount though.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

I was listening to Mark Levin’s radio show the other day about Michelle Obama romping around extorting money from our government and twisting the arms of businesses to conform to her whacky ideas. Yeah, yeah, I know it would be better if everyone was slimmer – I get that part. But based on the performance of the government in other areas if they try to make us skinnier we are all probably going to look like refugees from a Stalinist Gulag or more likely balloon up to monstrous proportions on black market Twinkies and Snickers bars. But that wasn’t what my nightmare was about.

Think about it – the last time we had a woman of modest accomplishment and limitless ambition in the White House who jumped wholesale into the operation of part of the government and was trapped in a marriage with a buffoon . . . . . that woman came back, and back, and back. She first leapt into the Senate and now she’s romping around the world on the taxpayer’s dime. Of course the woman (who was also a lawyer) was Hillary and the buffoon was Bill Clinton.

Hey Illinois – you better find someplace else for Barack and Michelle Obama to live in 2013 or you are likely to have a “Senator Obama” again. And we know what a disaster that was for everybody in the case of former First Lady Clinton. Come to think of it – Senator Barack Obama didn’t do much for Illinois either – he was too busy running for President.

I just can’t shake that vision of Senator Michelle Obama (Socialist – IL) pontificating about health and making me subsist on nuts, berries, and bark. I can see the headlines now:

“ObamaBillPasses, McDonalds outlawed”

“Outback-Obama pact replaces Beef with Tofu Patties”

“Baskins and Robbins ditches dairy for Obama mandated Soy Ice Cream”

Then after she destroys the food industry and we have forgotten how miserable we were under a Democrat President and elect another one – you guessed it – Secretary of Defense Michelle Obama. Her first order of business will be to fix “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” permanently by requiring all military members to be bi-sexual.